Five Forks, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Five Forks, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Five Forks lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Five Forks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Five Forks — the short answer
Five Forks, South Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 262 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 11
- Greenville County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 28
- Greenville County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~262
- Greenville County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 5K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Greenville County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Five Forks's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Five Forks's 262-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Five Forks
Each reading below is measured for Five Forks itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsFive Forks runs about 262 days between hard freezes (read from Greenville County, the closest normal to Five Forks) — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredFive Forks sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Five Forks is in
Five Forks sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Five Forks's own centroid rather than borrowed from Greenville County.
What Grows in Five Forks
Every plant below cleared Five Forks's own zone 8a and its 262-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Five Forks?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
Documented around Five Forks
Survey cells within 31 miles of Five Forks checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 50 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Five Forks
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Five Forks. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LOWES FUELING CENTER 264Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- PUBLIX SUPERMARKET 35 FIVE FORKS PLACEBrownfields · 2200 ft
- LAWERENCE FABRICATIONBrownfields · 2600 ft
- CORNER MART 20Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- FAMILY & INTERNAL MEDICINE- FIVE FORKSBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- SPINX 191Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ABANDONED GAS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CIRCLE K 2723289Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CVS PHARMACY 2242Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- BURNS REPAIR SERVICEBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- FIVE FORKS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- BROWN PLUMBING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Five Forks's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Five Forks.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Five Forks
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Five Forks
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Five Forks, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 154 sites within ~10 miles of Five Forks. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Five Forks
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Five Forks average
Your land is one point inside Five Forks
Everything above resolves to Five Forks as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 5K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Greenville County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at town scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Five Forks Average
Five Forks Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Five Forks
- ●One soil character for all of Five Forks
- ●Frost dates read at Five Forks's scale: Mar 11 to Nov 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Five Forks's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Five Forks
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Five Forks, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Five Forks averages can't show:
We read public map data around Five Forks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Five Forks average
How we know this about Five Forks
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Greenville County’s record, because none resolves here; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Five Forks
When does frost risk typically end in Five Forks?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Five Forks typically lands around Mar 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Apr 1.
When is the first frost in Five Forks?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Five Forks typically arrives around Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 14, so the watching starts about Oct 29 — about 262 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Five Forks?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Five Forks sees about 262 frost-free days — roughly Mar 11 through Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 1 to Nov 14, about 227 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Five Forks?
The federal record around Five Forks runs heavier than most — 1,543 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (765), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Five Forks?
From about Oct 29 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Nov 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Nov 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Five Forks's scale — its 8a band and its 262-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Five Forks's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Five Forks’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Five Forks's own scale — the 4,845 acres it covers and 1,543 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Five Forks's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,543 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Five Forks, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Five Forks's boundary and the 4,845 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~262-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Five Forks's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Five Forks checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Five Forks has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Greenville County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Five Forks's 4,845 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Greenville County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Greenville County
- The growing challenges every South Carolina grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom South Carolina
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Greenville County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Five Forks's 4,845 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Five Forks you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,845 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Five Forks-wide figureread your own land →